Sunday, August 4, 2024
Friday, August 2, 2024
A Quick Lesson on the Venn Diagram & Why Kamala Harris is Smart to Use It
An excerpt from Salon -
Why a love of Venn diagrams is Kamala Harris' not-so-secret weapon for creating smart policy
Logic dictates that multiple variables must be accounted for in politics; interlocking circles help visualize them
By Gwydion Suilebhan - Steven Gimbel
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| Kamala Harris (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images) |
This is not the first time Harris has professed affection for this logical mechanism. As a former courtroom lawyer who needed to be able to clearly demonstrate complicated inferences to juries in a way that anyone could follow, Attorney General Harris would have found Venn diagrams to be the perfect tool.
So, too, in politics. At a speech at Bryn Mawr University in 2022, for example, she produced a Venn diagram for the crowd, saying. “So, I asked my team, ‘Tell me from which states are we seeing attacks on women’s reproductive healthcare, attacks on voting rights, and attacks on LGBTQ+ rights.’ And you would not be surprised to know that there was quite an overlap, including, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Arizona.” The overlap in these policy goals became clear to anyone who could see.
Republicans have seized on this intellectual infatuation, calling it cringeworthy. She was mocked by "Fox & Friends" host Brian Kilmeade who said “When you peak in third and fourth grade and become Vice President we’re doomed.”
Allowing for the straightforward visualization of logical relations, Venn diagrams were in fact designed as a teaching tool. But contrary to Kilmeade’s characterization, they are a means well beyond grade school level. They were an important step in the development of formalized reasoning that led to digital computers.
If your understanding of them comes from social media and the memeosphere, you could be excused for underestimating their power and importance in the history of ideas. Vice President Harris may proclaim her adoration of them in public more frequently than she does for her husband, but looking at the development of logic, Doug Emhoff has not done anything quite like John Venn.
Here's a history tracing the meticulous development of the Venn diagram to better understand how we got to the useful visual tool we still employ today.
Not just blind luck
With the exception of the Olympics’ insignia, Venn diagrams are our most recognizable overlapping circles. Named after Cambridge University mathematician and logician John Venn, they first appeared in his book "Symbolic Logic" in 1880. In that work, he named them after a different mathematician calling them “Eulerian circles.”
Venn knew there had to be more to math than just cranking through problems. There were deep philosophical questions buried in it.
Leonhard Euler was a Swiss mathematician whose 866 published mathematical papers are the most published as a solo author of anyone in history. To make this even more impressive, he did much of this work while blind. One focus of his work was taking complex mathematical reasoning and operations and representing it using symbols so that instead of having to think through long chains of inferences, we could instead manipulate symbols according to simple rules.
As a result, he generated many of the standard representations we still use. Why is the letter x used for an unknown quantity in algebra? Euler. Why do we use the Greek letter π for the ratio between a circle’s circumference and diameter? Euler. Why is the square root of -1 called i? Euler.
In his quest to make complicated (and in the case of i, complex) mathematics simpler, Euler came upon a way to use circles to represent class membership. This allowed for a teaching tool that made certain logical relations clearer because they could be simply seen. Euler’s diagrams were effective, but Venn soon realized that they were limited in their applicability. Euler’s circles could not do something that a modified approach could — allow for a mechanical way of doing logic. Venn, with his new twist, would out-Euler, Euler.
Who, what, where and Venn
John Venn was the son of an Anglican minister whose interest was not in the Divine order of the universe, but rather its underlying mathematical structure. Attending Cambridge, he sat for the Mathematical Tripos, a grueling eight-day exam that largely tested one’s ability to quickly calculate for extended periods of time. Venn described the event as “fearfully hard work, both physical and mental.”
https://www.salon.com/2024/07/29/venn-diagrams-kamala-harris-explainer-history/
A Pivotal Moment in the Race
Rosenberg: I think when you look back at this magical moment that we’re in now, there are three things that really contributed to it: the picking of Vance, Joe Biden’s selfless act, and Kamala Harris coming out of the gate in a very commanding and strong fashion. I think all of… pic.twitter.com/pDJoQy7hYU
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 1, 2024
Mr. Rogers is Still Teaching Us
An excerpt from ForstForWomen -
Mr. Rogers Quotes: 14 Times He Spread His Wisdom on Love, Kindness and Helping Others in Need
Mr. Rogers left the world a better place than when he came into it — See these 14 quotes we love
By Raquel Lekic
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| Mr. Rogers in the 80s |
Mr Rogers quotes about being kind to yourself
“If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.”
“You are a very special person. There is only one like you in the whole world. There’s never been anyone exactly like you before, and there will never be again. Only you. And people can like you exactly as you are.
“The toughest thing is to love somebody who has done something mean to you. Especially when that somebody has been yourself.”
Mr Rogers quotes about helping others
“All of us, at some time or other, need help. Whether we’re giving or receiving help, each one of us has something valuable to bring to this world. That’s one of the things that connects us as neighbors — in our own way, each one of us is a giver and a receiver.”
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”
“Real strength has to do with helping others.”
“There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.”
Wow!
Never forget this iconic photo of Shaq and Simone Biles 🐐😂#OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/B8dWAKWgKL
— DraftKings (@DraftKings) July 26, 2024
You're Probably Peeing Wrong
An excerpt from Parade -
A Urogynecologist Is Begging You to Stop Doing This One Super-Common Thing When You Pee
It's probably something you haven't thought about.
By Erica Sweeney
You probably don’t think much about how you pee. You just go. While it’s a natural reflex that you’ve been doing your whole life, the way you pee could be taking a toll on your pelvic floor.
This came up recently in a TikTok video, where TikToker @postvirallife said, “I think I’ve been peeing wrong my entire life.”
Before getting a vaginal ultrasound, she said her technician told her to use the restroom but not to push when she peed. Instead, she was instructed to breathe through her nose and release the pee naturally, and that she’d know when the last drop was out once she felt a warm sensation.
Doctors say this is good advice.@postvirallife Anyone else or just me? #bladderproblems #bladder #interstitialcystisis #chronicillness #uti ♬ original sound - Katie
“Peeing is more about relaxing the pelvic floor muscles and allowing the sphincter to relax and at the same time, the brain has the bladder muscles contract to eliminate urine,” says Dr. Lopa Pandya, MD, a urogynecologist, reconstructive surgeon and medical adviser at Aeroflow Urology.
“So peeing is more of a relaxation action and not a pushing action,” she adds.
https://parade.com/health/what-to-stop-doing-when-you-pee-according-to-urogynecologists
Thursday, August 1, 2024
The First Hmong-American Olympian
An excerpt from WeGotThisCovered -
Gold medal-winning gymnast Suni Lee’s ethnicity, confirmed
Lee contributed in helping the United States national artistic gymnastics team win gold at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
By Kevin Stewart
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| Image via NBC |
Sunisa “Suni” Lee is a 21-year-old artistic gymnast representing the United States on the world stage. She won gold medals at the 2019 World Championships, the 2022 NCAA Championships, and both the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games.
~~~~~
Born on March 9, 2003, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Lee is American through and through. However, her parentage gives her an intriguing ethnicity.
Lee’s mother, Yeev Thoj, a healthcare worker, was a refugee who immigrated to the United States from Laos when she was a child. That means Lee’s ethnicity is Hmong. The Hmong people are an ethnic group that lives primarily in China and Southeast Asia.
It also makes her the first Hmong-American Olympian. Lee is also said to be the first woman of Asian descent and the first Asian American woman to win the Olympic all-around title.
First Black Gymnast Earns Statue
Face2FaceAfrica -
The first Black gymnast to win a gold medal finally gets a statue in her hometown
By Dollita Okine
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| Dominique Dawes statue. Photo via YouTube/ montgomerycountymd |
At the Silver Spring Recreation and Aquatic Center (SSRAC), Montgomery County erected a statue honoring one of the area’s own Olympians, three-time gold medalist Dominique Dawes. The statue was unveiled on July 23, just days before the start of the 2024 Summer Olympics.
The 47-year-old retired gymnast told The Washington Informer, “I grew up minutes down the road so it’s truly an honor. It’s very humbling.”
She went on to say that the statue isn’t just about recognizing her work; it’s also about inspiring young people to pursue their aspirations in the face of challenges. Brian Hanlon spent a year creating the sculpture, which was inspired by a photo from the Atlanta Olympics.
First Black Woman To Earn Individual Fencing Medal at Olympics
An excerpt from AfroTech -
The First Black American Woman To Earn An Individual Medal In Fencing Is Also A Harvard Student With An Interest In Alternative Investing
By Samantha Dorisca
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| Photo Credit: Joe Scarnici |
Lauren Scruggs is a Harvard student and Olympic champion!
Scruggs, 21, was introduced to fencing by her brother, Nolen, Essence reports. The sport has now taken the Queens, NY, native to the grand Olympic stage. She has received her first medal at the 2024 Olympics, earning silver in individual foil, falling just short to U.S. teammate Lee Kiefer.
“It’s just unbelievable,” Scruggs told Today. “Seeing my family in the stands and being able to fence in front of all those people in Paris in that great building was just insane to me. Just to have the medal over me and feel the weight was heavy, was unbelievable.”
Additionally, Scruggs made history in the process, becoming the first Black American woman to earn an individual fencing medal at the Paris Olympics, Essence reports.
“Fencing has largely, historically been a non-Black sport,” Scruggs said, per the NCAA. “So I hope to inspire young Black girls to get into fencing and to think that they can have a place in the sport. I just hope that more people who look like me, little girls like me, feel they have a place in the sport.”
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
Don't Come For the Cat Ladies
Childless Cat and Dog Ladies for Harris pic.twitter.com/ywHt1W0ZGb
— Chelsea Handler (@chelseahandler) July 28, 2024
"Say it to my face."
VP: Donald. I do hope you'll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage. Because as the saying goes, if you got something to say, say it to my face pic.twitter.com/f6Fv67p1uh
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 30, 2024
Tuesday, July 30, 2024
Twisted Thoughts About the Border
An excerpt from Time -
The Border Is Not the Problem
By Dinaw Mengestu
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| A new U.S. citizen, leaving a 2018 mass naturalization ceremony in L.A., waves the flagMario Tama—Getty Images |
When my father arrived in America from Ethiopia in 1978, he was resettled, with the help of an immigration agency, to Peoria, Ill. He found a job working on the factory floor of a Caterpillar Inc. plant, and by the time my mother, sister, and I joined him two years later, he’d already found a two-bedroom apartment two blocks from the Catholic school my sister and I would attend.
It was a startlingly American childhood, made more so by the fact that we spent our weekends at a Southern Baptist church on the other side of town. My parents, raised in the Ethiopian Orthodox church, had never heard of Southern Baptists before coming to America. But every Sunday, there we were, in the front pews, the first and only Black family to have ever attended the church.
On a recent cross-country road trip, my wife and I decided to take our two children on a detour to Peoria. My family had left the city at the tail end of the 1980s recession, when unemployment hovered near 20%. I wanted to see if we could find Sharon, one of the members of the church my family had been especially close to. I hadn’t spoken to Sharon in at least 10 years. We arrived unannounced at her doorstep just in time to take her to lunch. It was the first and most likely the last time she would meet my family. On the drive to the restaurant, Sharon pointed out the Greek Orthodox church near her home.
“Your mom and dad tried to go there,” she said, “but the priest or pastor told them not to come back. He said they would be more comfortable somewhere else.”
When I told Sharon I had never heard that story before she didn’t seem surprised. She shrugged.
“That sort of thing happened a lot back then,” she said. “Your parents had a hard time fitting in.”
I was about to ask Sharon how they were able to do so at a Southern Baptist church, but she saw the question coming.
“Your mom and dad met with Brother Gene, and he saw that they were good people and told them they would be welcome in his church,” she explained. “Before you all came, though, he went around and called every single person. He said if anyone gave your family a hard time, they’d have hell to pay for it. And that was it. I don’t think anyone bothered you at all.”
It felt like a confession when Sharon told the story, and I suppose to some degree it was. If no one at the church ever told us to our face that we didn’t belong—if no one ever explicitly asked us to leave—it was because the good people of the church had been compelled, even threatened, into accepting us. Had they not been, it’s unlikely we would have ever lasted more than a week at the church.
Given the current apocalyptic narrative surrounding immigration, it’s hard to imagine the leader of a conservative Southern Baptist church making a similar kind of phone call today. Whether or not Brother Gene knew my parents to be good people, he knew they were refugees, and in the early 1980s, the political and cultural framework had yet to solidify into the often dehumanizing imagery that’s common today.
https://time.com/7004943/the-border-is-not-the-problem-dinaw-mengestu/
Olympians Managing Their Periods
An excerpt from the Telegraph -
How Olympians manage their periods
Both science and athletes themselves are challenging assumption that women are at a disadvantage when menstruating
By Fiona Tomas
Emily Campbell has a contingency plan in place if her period arrives on or in the days leading up to Aug 11, the date when she will become a two-time Olympian. Team GB’s only weightlifter in Paris, in keeping with true British spirit, will simply keep calm and carry on.
“Nine times out of 10, it’s mental,” says Campbell. “It’s just saying to your brain, ‘This isn’t convenient right now, but you’re going to be all right’. Maybe take a couple of paracetamol for the cramps. But it’s business as usual.”
Mindset might trump menstruation but periods can present nightmarish challenges for Olympians. Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith spent seven months planning for her cycle ahead of the delayed Tokyo Games in 2021. A year later, she pulled up with cramps in the 100 metres final at the European Championships and called for more research into how menstrual cycles can affect performance. “If it was a men’s issue, we would have a million different ways to combat things,” she said at the time.
Historically, the contraceptive pill has been a trusted method among sportswomen to limit the impact of their period on performance, with a quarter of respondents in this year’s BBC Elite British Sportswomen’s Study admitting to manipulating their monthly bleed. But amid a rise in cycle-tracking apps and small steps forward in menstrual health research, periods are starting to be hailed as a superpower.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/olympics/2024/07/29/how-olympians-manage-their-periods/
Monday, July 29, 2024
Why Not Her?
An excerpt from Time -
Kamala Harris and the Inevitable Return of ‘Not That Woman’
By Belinda Luscombe
Americans are, for only the second time in history, standing at the brink of that undiscovered country: the one where a woman is in charge. Perhaps now Sri Lankans (the first citizenry to elect a female national leader) will stop snickering. Perhaps the U.S. will finally win some respect from the Finns, who have elected four female leaders already. Maybe the largest economy in the world could catch up with Pakistan—currently ranked 142 of 146 countries for gender inequality—and vote in at least one female leader.
But don’t bet on it.
When the popular Christian author and podcaster Jen Hatmaker posted her support for Kamala Harris on social media, the reaction from her largely female following was swift, large, and familiar. There was plenty of cheerleading, with a liberal dose of LFGs (Let’s Freaking Go). And then there was the other refrain: Not her.
“I’m all for a woman, but definitely not her!” wrote one follower. “KH is the last person I want to think of as the first woman POTUS,” wrote another. “I would love a strong woman in office that is qualified to improve things for ALL hard working Americans,” began yet another. For women old enough to have lived through previous election cycles that flirted with electing a female head of state, these sentiments were as predictable as arthritis. And about as welcome.
Every time a woman draws near to getting the top job, it occurs to a certain percentage of voters, male and female, that while they, of course, are deeply committed to female leadership, they simply cannot countenance the particular female who is vying for leadership on that occasion. This was true, memorably, of people’s reaction to the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. And to Elizabeth Warren during the 2020 primary race. But it’s not limited to one side of the political divide. People felt that way about Nikki Haley—that she was uniquely wrong for the job. People really felt that way about Sarah Palin. (Although in that case they may have had a point.)
~~~~~~~~~~
It’s 2024, so a lot of women are hoping we are past the era where a woman’s candidacy can be dismissed because of the way her face looks, or because she was tough on her staff and once ate salad with a comb, or because she was insensitive about her ancestry, or because her spouse with an Italian name didn’t want to release his tax returns. These used to be mountains in the way of women’s electoral path, but time and perspective have (please God?) restored their molehill status.
~~~~~~~~
More difficult to surmount than any of these, however, is the fatal character flaw of being just plain unlikable. Unlikability is a difficult trait to diagnose, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that in women, it’s usually comorbid with assertiveness and ambition. Academic studies have actually discovered the formula behind this phenomenon: the closer a woman gets to power, the less likable she is. In 1984 an aide to then Vice President George H.W. Bush called Geraldine Ferraro “too bitchy” after the VP candidates debated. It hasn’t changed much. Haley was accused of being rude, unnecessarily combative, and “a little too aggressive” during primary debates. Her opponent Ron DeSantis, meanwhile, was “sharp and feisty.” Donald Trump said that "Nikki suffers from something that's a very tough thing to suffer from: She's overly ambitious." This from a guy who sought—and won—the presidency after making his name by firing people on TV.
https://time.com/7004186/kamala-harris-not-that-woman-female-candidate/
Kamala Harris is Kamalot
From New York Magazine -
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| On the Cover: Photo-illustration by Joe Darrow for New York Magazine. |
https://nymag.com/magazine/toc/2024-07-29.html
Sunday, July 28, 2024
Finland vs. the United States
An excerpt from CNBC Make It -
28-year-old who left the U.S. for Finland: What work is like in the world’s happiest country—‘they essentially force you to take a vacation’
By Jade Ventoniemi, Contributor
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| Here I am at my old office.Photo: Jade Ventoniemi |
I’ve been living in Finland, the world’s happiest country, for five years now. I think one of the secrets to the happiness of the Finnish people is the country’s work culture.
Getting work here as a foreigner can be tough, but I’ve been fortunate to have two different corporate jobs in Finland. One job was at a start-up software company with under 50 employees, and the other was at a manufacturing company with over 500 employees.
I quickly found that their approach to things like vacation time, parental leave and benefits differed from the US. There are a lot of aspects of work life here that I appreciate, but there was a lot that surprised me and took some time to adjust to.
In the last year, I took what I learned, launched my own marketing firm and started working for myself. These are a few things that stand out to me about corporate life in Finland:
Many workplaces are flexible and allow employees to choose a schedule that fits their lifestyle.
In Finland, typical office hours go from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. One small culture shock I experienced early on is that when workdays often start so early, some people start going to lunch around 11 a.m. Another surprise was how dark it is during the winter when you arrive and when you leave the office.
For many corporate jobs, the work week is 37.5 hours. Overtime hours are not paid in salary, but in corresponding time off. So, if you work a lot one week, it’s normal to do less the next week or take more vacation days.
If you have an appointment or some obligations for your children during the work day, that can be considered paid time off. In Finland, you’ll often get paid double if you work on Sundays.
It feels like, in Finland, managers and bosses respect employees’ time off. If it’s after 4 p.m., people do not expect their colleagues to respond to an email or answer their work phone. The flexible hours are meant to allow people to have more time in the evenings for hobbies, activities and picking up kids from school.
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